The body of Hamdi Nassan from the village of al-Mughayir, who was shot dead by Israeli settlers, is carried to his last resting place

MEMBER of the PLO Executive Committee, Hanan Ashrawi, said on Saturday evening that the Israeli government and its allies are responsible for rise in settler terrorism, referring to the fatal shooting by Jewish settlers of a Palestinian man in the village of al-Mughayir, near Ramallah, earlier on the day.

Ashrawi condemned on behalf of the PLO ‘the heinous murder of Hamdi Nassan, 38, and the injury of 30 other Palestinian civilians at the hands of armed Israeli settler militias.’

She said in a press release, ‘Under heavy protection from Israeli forces, these militias raided Al-Mughayir village near Ramallah this Saturday, terrorising the defenceless residents and wreaking havoc in the isolated village. ‘The political climate in Israel negates Palestinian rights and expresses objectionable racism against the Palestinian people.

‘As such, the marked escalation of terror attacks by armed groups of Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians is a natural outcome of the culture of hate and atmosphere of incitement and violence against Palestinians that this extremist Israeli government espouses and promotes,’ she continued.

Ashrawi held the Israeli government wholly responsible for what she described as a heinous crime. ‘Governments that actively support this colonial regime and shield it from accountability also bear moral and criminal liability for the crimes committed by Israeli forces and settlers, who commit murder with impunity. Equally, states that choose to remain silent against this terror campaign must understand that in these times of injustice, silence is complicity.

‘We grieve along with Hamdi Nassan’s bereaved wife and four children. Thirty other Al-Mughayer residents are receiving medical treatment for their injuries. We wish them a speedy and full recovery,’ she concluded.

• News about the attacks by both Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers, which resulted in the killing of one Palestinian in village of al-Mughayer, northeast of Ramallah, hit the highlights of the front pages of the three Arabic Palestinian dailies on Sunday.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Ayyam and al-Quds said that Israeli settlers and soldiers on Saturday shot dead a Palestinian man and injured at least nine others, during clashes which erupted in the village of al-Mughayer, northeast of Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, after a group of Jewish settlers raided and attacked the village.

They said Hamdi Nassan, 38, was announced dead by the Ministry of Health shortly after he was critically injured by Israeli settlers. Nine others were also injured, one of them seriously. The injured were moved to nearby hospitals for medical treatment.

Commenting on the murder, the dailies said that the Palestinian Presidency condemned the attack in a statement, saying that ‘This attack reaffirms that the Israeli government is continuing its policy of escalation.’

The dailies said the Presidency blamed the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu responsible for this escalation. ‘This escalation will lead to serious consequences, further tension and the creation of a dangerous and uncontrollable atmosphere.’ Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian in East Jerusalem early Saturday after shooting at a car he was driving.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said that two Palestinians, a father and his son, were slightly injured on Saturday evening after an Israeli settler attacked them with an axe near the village of Deir Estya, to the north of Salfit town. According to al-Ayyam, a Palestinian resident of Silwan, a neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, demolished on Saturday two rooms in his home after he received a warning from the West Jerusalem Israeli municipality that if he does not demolish the rooms on his own, the municipality would destroy them and force him to pay exorbitant costs.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida also reported that Lina Osama Quteineh, a genetics doctor from Jerusalem, won the second prize in Switzerland for best published research in organ transplant in 2018.

• Hamas has offered Fatah four options to restore and achieve national unity, Deputy Chief of Hamas Saleh al-Arouri said late last Friday. In an interview on Friday evening broadcast by al-Aqsa TV channel, al-Arouri said that Hamas suggested four options to heal the Palestinian split: holding general elections, forming a unified National Council, organising the Provisional Leadership Framework of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), or forming a national unity government supervised by the Legislative Council.

Al-Arouri indicated that Hamas wasn’t seeking a majority in any Palestinian institution.
Hamas suggested holding a unified national council outside of Palestine so that all Palestinian factions could participate, but Fatah insisted to hold it in Ramallah, al-Arouri noted.

To heal the internal division and restructure the trajectory of Palestinian politics, al-Arouri added, Hamas called for holding the Provisional Leadership Framework of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and forming a national unity government to take decisive decisions regarding the contested issues.

Al-Arouri stressed that the Palestinian people would not be able to end the occupation and achieve their demands unless they resort national unity. Hamas will not backtrack on its pursuit to restore national unity in order to combat the conspiracies threatening the Palestinian cause, al-Arouri confirmed.

The Hamas Deputy Chief condemned the violent Israeli crackdown on Palestinian detainees held in the Israeli jails as a ‘coward attack.’ Al-Aruouri noted that the Israeli Occupation escalated its aggressive policies against the Palestinian detainees after the Israeli government announced early election, adding that Hamas will not accept the Israeli crackdown on Palestinian prisoners to be used as a political stunt.

Al-Arouri called on all segments of the Palestinian people to express solidarity with the Palestinian detainees and exert more efforts to pressure the Israeli Occupation to end its aggressive policies against them. Al-Arouri denied that the Palestinian resistance had signed any ceasefire agreement with the Israeli Occupation.

He added that the National Committee of the Great March of Return agreed to reduce the intensity of the peaceful, popular protests along Gaza’s eastern border fence in return for a halt of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. ‘We demanded a sea lane for all the Palestinian people, not only the Gazans, for exporting goods,’ al-Arouri noted.

Regarding the Israeli plans to take over al-Aqsa Mosque, al-Arouri called on the Arab and Islamic nations to exert more efforts to protect the Muslims’ third shrine from the Israeli schemes and support the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem.

Concerning the US move to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli Occupation’s capital, al-Arouri urged the Arab and Islamic states to take a firm stance to counter this decision. Al-Arouri said that the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ was an Israeli vision adopted and backed by the United States to establish a state in Gaza and put the West Bank under the Israeli control.

The senior Hamas official noted that some parties in the region were working to pass the US-darted ‘Deal of the Century’, describing them as ‘illegitimate regimes’.
Al-Arouri reiterated that Hamas rejected a ‘state of Palestine established without Gaza, nor with Gaza alone.’